Tiny creatures, big problems for reservoirs
It’s a spring-like morning at Lake Casitas and bass anglers sense that any day now the quarry they’re so passionate about will begin to rise and aggressively feed.
But anticipation of a new season is tempered because these anglers may soon be informed they can no longer launch their fancy boats at this spacious Ventura County reservoir.
And the thought all of those fish going unhooked is so distressing that some would do almost anything to prevent this from happening.
“I’d rather have my girlfriend dump me than have them close the lake down,” says Brandon LeMay, 23, a nighttime housekeeper at nearby Ojai Valley Hospital, and a daytime fixture on the lake.
“I’d rather have her dump me, and I would not get mad, if they would just not close the lake, because this is all I do. I live, eat, sleep and dream fishing.”
At issue is not conservation. Casitas is among the world’s premier largemouth bass fisheries.
Instead, the fuss is over a mollusk the size of a fingertip.
The Casitas Municipal Water District, noting the recent spread of quagga mussels throughout the Lower Colorado River and into Riverside and San Diego counties, has mandated a pre-launch inspection of all boats entering Casitas.
It may also become the first Southland reservoir to impose an outright ban on private boats, because the invasive mussels are, after all, notorious hitchhikers.
“The general consensus is that this is an emergency that needs to be dealt with now rather than later,” says Russ Baggerly, a district board member who favors a ban. “I have clearly in mind the need to protect the water resource over recreational fishing. There can’t be any other outcome.”
The five-member board has scheduled a public hearing March 4 at Nordhoff High in Ojai. About 400 people are expected and testimony will be contentious.
“If boats are banned I’d be out of business and so would a lot of other companies,” argues local fishing guide Marc Mitrany. “This is a world-class fishing lake and it has world-class camping and nobody’s going to come if they can’t put their boat in the water.”
Gas stations, restaurants, markets and motels along the main highway in Oak View, the community nearest the lake, will feel the pinch if a ban is imposed.
Casitas logs 27,000 launches annually, and about 60% involve bass fishermen who would simply fish elsewhere, leaving the lake to shore anglers and casual fishermen content to soak bait from rental skiffs.
If quagga mussels invade Casitas, they’ll multiply into millions, clog pipes and cause damage that would require perpetual repairs. Costs would be passed down to users, mostly non-fishing residents of Ventura.
The fishery, over time, also will suffer.
“Each one of these quaggas can filter a liter of water per day,” explains L. Breck Mc- Alexander, an environmental scientist with the state Department of Fish and Game. “The filtered water becomes so clean that light penetrates deeper and collapses the microorganisms and usurps the nutrients in the reservoir.
“That usurps the bottom of the food chain that the higher-level animals and predators are dependent on, and the result is smaller fish.”
So if quaggas are introduced into Casitas, Ray Easley’s 1981 catch of a 21-pound 3-ounce largemouth will probably forever remain the lake record.
Scientists are working on solutions, including a mussel-killing bacteria, but they are years away. Meantime, quaggas and their close relatives, zebra mussels, appear on missions of manifest destiny, advancing in a manner reminiscent of early settlers.
Both arrived in the U.S. from Europe, in ballast water, infesting first the Great Lakes, then much of the Midwest, Northeast and South.
They reached Kansas and Nebraska before the quaggas somehow leapfrogged the Rockies and became established in Lake Mead in January 2007. They marched downriver and into the Southland via the Colorado River Aqueduct.
Zebra mussels made their first known California appearance last month, in San Justo Lake in San Benito County.
What’s frightening is that these algae-eaters have no natural predators in North America. And out West, where conditions are favorable, they may be able to spawn year-round, making control efforts even more difficult.
“It’s like a science-fiction movie,” McAlexander says.
Casitas believes the Department of Fish and Game, various federal agencies and other water managers aren’t doing enough to combat the spread, so it is taking matters in hand.
If anglers arrive with water, mud or sludge on their boats or motors, their vessels are put on 28-day quarantine. If they’re known to have visited any of 20 infested waterways, they receive the quarantine.
If a ban on private boats is imposed, Baggerly says, it probably would not be lifted until decontamination stations are in place at the launch ramp.
Nearby Lake Cachuma is also inspecting boats and considering more restrictive measures, and at both reservoirs boaters have been turned away, fuming.
“All they found was a little grease and we saw boats getting in that were way worse,” says Robbie Martinez, a Casitas regular who recently bought an annual pass for his vessel, which is now quarantined. “Luckily my friend has a boat.”
That’s LeMay, who at last check had not been dumped by his girlfriend.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Growing problem
Waters recently found to contain quagga mussels:
1. Lake Mead and Colorado River (includes several reservoirs)
2. Colorado River Aqueduct
3. Lake Matthews
4. Lake Skinner
5. Dixon Lake
6. Lower Otay Reservoir
7. San Vicente Reservoir
8. Murray Reservoir
9. Lake Miramar
10. Sweetwater Reservoir
11. San Justo Lake (zebra mussels)
12. El Capitan Reservoir
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Los Angeles Times